Bio: Yuebing Zheng is an assistant professor of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. He joined UT Austin in fall 2013 after three years' postdoctoral research (with Prof. Paul S. Weiss) at the University of California, Los Angeles. He received his Ph.D. in Engineering Science and Mechanics (with Prof. Tony Jun Huang) from the Pennsylvania State University in 2010. His research group works on optical nanotechnologies in health, energy, manufacturing, and national security. Current research areas include optical manipulation and assembly, molecular plasmonics, and plasmofluidic lab on a chip. He has authored and co-authored over 100 journal papers, conference proceedings, book chapters and patents. Recent awards include ONR Young Investigator Award (2017), 3M Non-Tenured Faculty Award (2015), and Beckman Young Investigator Award (2014). He is an associate editor of Journal of Electronic Materials. More about us http://zheng.engr.utexas.edu

Abstract: By coupling electromagnetic field to coherent oscillation of free electrons, surface plasmons can concentrate light into small volumes beyond the diffraction limit. We exploit plasmonic nanotechnology to manipulate light, mass and energy at the nanoscale for emerging applications. Herein, I present our progress in three areas. (1) Plasmon-enhanced optothermal manipulations of colloidal particles and biological cells at low optical power and with simple optics. Our newly developed techniques include bubble-pen lithography, thermophoretic tweezers, and Lego-like assembly. Their applications in nanofabrication, in-situ surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy and cellular biology are discussed. (2) Plasmon-enhanced resonant energy transfer and hot-electron injection at metal-molecule and metal-semiconductor hybrids (including atomic-layer 2D materials). Their applications in fluorescence enhancement, rewritable nanophotonics and solar water splitting are discussed. (3) Light manipulation with moire metamaterials and metasurfaces. Our demonstrated applications include chiral sensing, multi-band optical spectroscopy, optical capture of bacteria, and photothermal denaturation of proteins